BS 4 U

After climate change activists Extinction Rebellion blocked traffic for hours with a ‘street party’ in Stokes Croft to raise awareness of pollution and climate change, motorists have hit back in what has been dubbed their very own ‘Extinction Rebellion Rebellion‘.

Every evening at 5pm, from Monday to Friday last week, thousands of motorists boarded their cars in unison, bringing the roads in the centre of Bristol to a complete standstill.

The motorists cite a number of different reasons for taking to the streets, such as ‘getting home from work’, ‘going shopping’ and ‘trying to get to spin class’.

The ultimate goal of the weekday mass drive-outs, or ‘jams’ as they are known is unclear, although some motorists have said they “will not stop [driving] until there is an alternative option that is frequent, cheap and reliable,” so it seems unlikely that the jams are going to let up any time soon.

Temple meads at 5pm today

When asked what they intend to do about the increasingly frequent jams in Bristol, a spokesperson for Bristol City Council said:

“We wholeheartedly support the rights of both of these groups to free speech and protest, in fact we encourage it. Which is why we have consistently delayed our plans to reduce pollution and have made little headway in providing feasible alternatives to car ownership – and we will continue to do so, so that the people of bristol will always have something to protest about.”